Towards Supporting Caregivers to Monitor the Whereabouts of People with Dementia

Dementia is a complex neurodegenerative syndrome that is accompanied by a progressive decline in cognitive abilities. People with dementia develop problems in coping with activities of daily living, including orientation and way-finding tasks. People with moderate to severe dementia are withdrawn and sensitive, which can make caring for and working with them challenging, especially for caregivers. Our work focusses on people with moderate to severe dementia and nursing homes. Building upon previous work in supporting way-finding for people with dementia, we propose an integrated platform to support caregivers and other stakeholders in localizing people and monitoring their whereabouts. Real-time monitoring, a history of location data and heat maps help caregivers to quickly locate people, identify critical situations and learn about preferred locations of residents. Doctors, technology and architectural designers receive valuable data on movement patterns that support diagnosis and intervention planning.

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